Page "By Way of Deception" Paragraph 2

Throughout the book, Ostrovsky claims to reveal details of the internal workings of the Mossad itself.

Ostrovsky claims that Mossad has access to Jewish helpers all around the world called sayanim ( sg.

sayan ).

Their services can supposedly be requested on short notice and no questions are asked.

Because of this, Mossad only needs 30 – 40 active case officers at any given time.

He also explains the different departments functions and how liaisons are conducted with foreign intelligence agencies.

One topic in his book is the suicide bombing of the U. S. Marine compound in Beirut that killed several hundred U. S. Marines in Lebanon: Ostrovsky maintains that the Mossad knew there was going to be an attack on the Americans ' peace mission in Beirut and intentionally withheld that information from the Americans.

According to Ostrovsky, a Mossad contact at a local body shop in Beirut told them a truck had come in for major modifications that were consistent with creating a very large truck bomb ( in fact the biggest truck and modifications for a truck bomb that anyone in war torn Beirut had ever heard of ), in the weeks prior to the suicide bombing of the Marine barracks.

The American peacekeeping mission in Beirut was the only likely target of such a large bomb, and the Mossad did not pass on this knowledge to their American counterparts in the intelligence services.

Ostrovsky does not attempt to describe why the Mossad, and by extension Israel, allowed the American peacekeeping mission to be attacked. Others have suggested that Mossad did not want the US peace keepers to stop hostilities because it was in the advantage of Mossad to see the civil war in Lebanon to continue as long as possible to keep Lebanon a weak and unstable country. Ostrovsky discusses how Mike Harriri, the former head of Metsada, used Mossad resources to traffic illegal drugs for Manuel Noriega.

Ostrovsky also discusses how Mossad was involved in trafficking heroin as a source of raising funds for operations that were outside government regulation. Ostrovsky also discusses how Mossad assasinated Khadir, a PLO diplomat who was sent by Arafat to start peace negotiations with the Israeli government to prevent an invasion of Lebanon.

This again served Mossad's interests to promote an Israeli invasion of Lebanon to wipe out the PLO.